The Greatest Ninja
by bookbaby03
Summary: A friend and a sister. A great ninja, one who always knew what she wanted. This is a true story, made by me, Sakura Haruno, that tells of the life of, in my opinion, the greatest ninja. I forgot to add ch.3 and skipped to ch.4....ch.3 is now up...plz read
1. Strange Arrivals

A book is simply a bunch of paper bound up and written on. But once you open that cover those pieces of paper with writing on them turn into something much more. The story in a book can easily be something so bad that you shut it after reading the first sentence. Then there are those books that captivate your attention from the very first sentence, or maybe even the chapter title. A story can be fact, fiction, myth, real, an escape from reality, or even something to show you the harsh events that can happen in reality. A book, a story, a paragraph, a sentence, or a word all mean different things to different people. But to me, the story that follows this short introduction means that one of the greatest people I've ever know will be remember forever. Her story will last for generations to come, and I will make sure of that. I start this story in the early morning of January, 16, in the fourth year in the reign of the Godaime Hokage.

In the almost light of pre-dawn a girl could be seen walking along the forest border by the guards stationed at the Kohona gates. Outside, it was still dark enough that the guards could barely see the person because it seemed like she blended with the surroundings. The only reason they knew there was a person there and it was a girl, was because of the long, strangely coloured hair swaying gently behind her as she approached the gates. The guards continued to wonder why someone with light blue hair wouldn't hide it to avoid being seen by others. Surely if anyone was roaming around at this ungodly hour, they would have a reason not to be seen. Soon enough the girl had come to the gates and was standing there as if waiting for one of the guards to start a conversation.

"Who are you and what do you want?" one of the guards barked. Upon closer examination it looked like this girl was roughly 17 years old and she looked to be a ninja. She wore black baggy pants with a kunai holster around her right leg. She wore a tight fitting white tank top under a black jacket that was left open. Her long hair was pulled back into a braid, most likely to keep it out of her way. The strangest thing though was the fact that she wore dark blue sunglasses in the hour of the morning where you could barely see without them on.

"I want into the village, and my name is no concern to you." When she spoke her voice was emotionless and it seemed like it could freeze over the fiery pits of hell.

"You honestly think that if we have no information about you, were just going to let you into the village?" While the guard spoke he tried to look through the sunglasses into her eyes, but it was a hopeless effort. The sunglasses were so dark that it was a miracle that the girl even found her way to the village, let alone two steps ahead of her.

The girl sighed and brushed a few stray strands of hair behind her ear. "I was invited here by my friends."

"Well then, your friends should come and get you then, right?" The guards smirked and looked pointedly at the girl in front of them.

"Fine. If you want to play that way," she took a seat on the ground and looked up at the guards who were staring down at her, confused. "I'll just wait here until they come and get me."

The guards looked at each other and returned to their proper posts closer to the gates. Twenty minutes had passed before anything happened. The whole time the girl just sat there staring up at the sky as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. The guards turned as the heard footsteps coming up on the other side of the gate. A small door in the bottom right of the right door opened and four ninja walked out. As the group approached, one of its members spoke out.

"You two haven't seen a girl with light blue hair and sunglasses have you?" A man with silver/gray hair stood in front of them. He had on the normal ninja attire, except that he had a mask covering half his face and his headband was covering one of his eyes. Beside him stood two more males and one female. One male was also dressed in the normal ninja attire and he had a cigarette sticking out of his mouth while the other wore this green unitard thing. The female with them had on red pants and a white shirt, while her hair was black and her eyes were red.

"You don't mean that one sitting on the ground over there, do you Kakashi-san?" The four heads turned over to where the guard pointed and saw the girl sitting there on the ground. She was still looking up at the sky, but she seemed to have a smile on her face now and she seemed more relaxed.

"Asuma, Gai, Kurenai, Kakashi, have you ever realized that it takes you forever to meet someone? It's not that hard to walk here is it?" She turned her head away from the sky and got up. When she lifted her head up she was smiling at the four ninja. "I would've come find you but some people wouldn't let me in the gates."

"Come on now Rayne, you can't blame them can you?" Kurenai said.

"You have no forehead protector, and you did show up here really early," Asuma added.

"Everyone knows that she can get here so early because she has the power of youth flowing in her and..." Gai started but was cut off by Rayne.

"Gai...shut up right now or I'm going to punch your face in." By now she was at the same spot as the rest. They all turned and walked into the village talking and laughing.

The guards at the gate looked at each other, looked at the group then back to each other.

"Is it just me or was that really confusing. I mean she was so cold to us and she was the complete opposite when talking to them .Can one person possibly have that much range in attitude?"

"I have no idea but that was really weird."

((Back to our main group a bit later))

By now it was time for the group to go train with their former genin teams. Now that all the Rookie Nine were seventeen and Gai's team was all eighteen, they had a choice of when and who they wanted to train with. That day all the former teams were getting together with their former sensei's and were training together. The four jounin with Rayne had told her that they usually did this at least once a month. She decided that she wanted to meet the people that she heard her friends talk so much about. So they were on the way to the pre-decided training grounds, albeit a little late. Arriving Rayne looked around seeing a group of 12 seventeen and eighteen year olds.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Rayne blinked twice and looked at Kakashi.

"I'm guessing that they're two of your former students." She stated raising an eyebrow and smirking. Kakashi sweatdropped and nodded in return. Rayne took a moment to look around at the people in the clearing. They all looked back at her with intrest except for a couple of the boys who looked like that had better things to do. (a/n: I'm guessing that u kno who they are..) Looking back at Kurenai Rayne gave her a look that met a bet. Kurenai caught the look and raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, what do you think you can do?" Kurenai asked.

"I bet you that I can name everyone one of the people here, excluding you four." Rayne replied. "And if I get all of them right, Kakashi has to buy me as much ramen as I can eat." Asuma, Gai and Kurenai started to laugh and Kakashi had gone white.

"But...but...you can eat more than Naruto!" Kakashi complained. "And why do I have to buy it?"

"Because I've known you longer. And if I get even one wrong, I'll buy you the new Icha Icha Tactcis that came out today." She smirked at Kakashi who had a little heart in the eye that you could see.

"Don't cheat now, Rayne," Asuma said.

"Don't worry I don't need to cheat to win this." She looked back at the people infront of her who stared at her like she was crazy. "Let's see, Gai's former team was Tenten, Rock Lee and Neji Hyuuga." As she said each name she pointed to the person. "Then Kurenai's team was Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka. Asuma's team was Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi. And finally, Kakashi's team was Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha." Once she was done she looked at Kakashi with a smile on her face.

"You know I hate you right now," Kakashi stated. "I;m not going to have any money left by the time your done eating am I?"

Rayne's smile grew wider as she said, "Nope!"


	2. Battle and Book Burning

After that whole 'name people and get food' incident, the group finally got to training. Rayne jumped up into a tree and sat there on a branch watching most of the time. While the former senseis weren't sparring or doing much else, they would talk to her. She gave them feedback on what any of the people training were doing wrong or they could improve on, and they sometimes relayed it back to the person it was directed to. Most of them looked up at her and thanked her for the advice, but there were some other that chose to ignore her advice thinking they were doing everything fine. Either that, or they didn't think that some stranger with no apparent haite-ate should give ninjas advice.

Around noon the training stopped so they could all go and have lunch. Hearing this, Rayne jumped down from the tree with a smile on her face.

"Kakashi! Time for you to buy me my ramen!"(a/n:so naruto like...lol--). She just got a weird look from 11 of the teens and 3 of the senseis. Kakashi gave her a look that said 'Do I really have to?' and at the word ramen Naruto started drooling. Rayne just smiled and walked by Kakashi, reaching out and pulling him by the sleeve behind her. The others followed and eventually found themselves outside of Ichariku. Rayne immediately ran in and sat down at the counter.

About 30 minutes and 14 bowls of ramen later, Rayne stood up and sighed rubbing her now full (enough) stomach. Looking at Kakashi she smirked and said, "Hope you have enough money to pay for all that. I only stopped eating so you wouldn't be broke for the next couple months." Everyone sweat dropped and stood up.

'How can she eat so much,' thought Ino.

'I bet she could rival Naruto, and maybe even Shoji,' marveled Kiba.

"So are we heading back to the clearing to train more?" Rayne asked.

"Train more?" Naruto started. "You haven't done a thing but sit up in a tree and watch us!"

"Ah, but now I have to work off what I ate." Rayne said, pushing her sunglasses up a little further onto the bridge of her nose. She stood up and faced the door. Then she sighed and said, "Fine." She turned her head to look at Kakashi who had been looking at her turned back. Smirking Rayne finished what she was going to say, "But there's no way that your going to beat me."

Once back at the training area, Rayne and Kakashi stood facing each other on opposite sides of the clearing. Kakashi stood at one end reading his perverted book as usual. On the other side, Rayne stood there surveying her surroundings. Formulating a plan, she brought her hands up in a sign and said, "Kage Bushin no Jutsu". Three shadow clones appeared beside her and Rayne put a hand on her hip looking at Kakashi.

"If I were you, I'd put the book away. Just because I'm the same age as your former students, doesn't mean you can handle my skills while reading."

Kakashi's only reply was a mumbled "whatever". Rayne huffed and started her attack. The four Rayne's surrounded Kakashi so he had one on his left, his right, in front of him and behind him. All four simultaneously attacked throwing kicks and punches at Kakashi. He easily dodged all of them while still reading his book but none of the Raynes gave up. Suddenly a blur jumped down from a near by tree and landed on one of the other Raynes' shoulders. Before the blur could be identified it jumped to another Rayne and kept doing so until there was a pattern of blurs above of Kakashi's head.

Most of Kakashi's attention was on the blur overhead, while the rest of it was on the four other Rayne's and his book. Because of that, he wasn't able to dodge what came next. Something broke through the ground underneath him, grabbed his beloved book and back flipped through the moving blur and over the other Raynes surrounding Kakashi.

The four Raynes surrounding Kakashi and the blur overhead vanished in a puff of smoke and the real Rayne stood a couple of feet away from Kakashi, holding onto his book.

"But I thought she only created three clones, not five." Sakura said from the side lines.

"At first she did," answered Kurenai. "Then she used the smoke created when the clones appeared to hide herself in a tree."

"While in the tree," Asuma continued, "She created another clone and had it create the blur that occupied most of Kakashi's attention. From there she snuck down the tree and went down into the ground so she could catch Kakashi off guard."

"Oh..." Sakura responded.

"Alright." Rayne looked at the book in her hand and grimaced. "You know, one day I'm going to steal all your books and burn them."

Kakashi's attention was now fully on Rayne and he gave a small gasp.

"Now that I've got your full attention," Rayne started, "Let's actually get this started. You beat me and I'll Give you your book back, but if I beat you, I burn it."

"Deal," Kakashi answered and made his first move. He was upon Rayne with lightening fast speed and was throwing kicks and punches everywhere. Rayne easily dodged all of them with even fast speed and was able to throw in a few punches and kicks of her own, some of which hit. Rayne stopped movie and raised her hand, stopping Kakashi's punch in mid-air without even sliding backwards the tiniest bit.

"You know," She stated. "The sad part of this is, is that I have my eyes closed." This received a few gasps from the sidelines and it gave Rayne an opportunity. Putting one leg behind Kakashi's legs, she made a move to trip Kakashi. The minute Kakashi jumped to avoid being tripped, Rayne twisted her body and brought her other leg up to hit Kakashi in the jaw, sending him flying backwards, through three trees.

Rayne brought her leg down and laughed nervously looking at the three fallen trees. "I guess I put a little too much power behind that kick." The people from the sidelines were already around her and also looking at the trees.

"You think," Kakashi said, emerging from the pile of destroyed trees. "I guess you won."

"That was really cool," Tenten commented to Rayne. Meanwhile, Lee, Neji and Sasuke were looking at Rayne with the same thing in mind. _I want to fight her. I want to test my strength against her._

Rayne held up Kakashi's book and held her fingers in a sapping position beneath them. She snapped her fingers and the book went up in flames with a disgruntled cry from Kakashi.

"Just because you won didn't mean you actually had to burn the book!" Kakashi whined.

Rayne sighed and shook her head. "Look in the pocket you normally keep the book in." Kakashi did and pulled out the exact same book that Rayne had just burned.

"But...how...?" Naruto asked.

"I knew that if I actually burned the book, he would be moping around for who knows how long. So I made a copy of the book and took that while putting the real on in his pocket without him noticing." Rayne smiled at the look in Kakashi's eye.

"First you made me pay for your food and now you toy with my book and emotions! What's next? No don't answer that I don't want to know."

"Glad to know nothing's changed." Rayne laughed.


	3. Not As She Seems

A/N: Just to remind the readers, this is Sakura writing the story so whenever a paragraph has around it, it means that it is Sakura's present comments. Like a narrator. And it also just occurred to me that I forgot to add this chpater and skipped onto the next chapter so just please read this chapter and the next one will make a little more sense.

My first impression of Rayne was that she was somewhat of a "Naruto", but a little calmer (If that is even possible). She seemed to be easy to talk to. Although the first time I met her she was only talking to Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai and Gai. I just figured that was because she didn't really know any of us. Well, I'll never make that mistake again.

The rest of the day passed fairly uneventful. Little more training, then everyone went off on their own. By five that afternoon, Rayne was the only one left in the training grounds. She jumped down from the tree she was laying in and walked off to the center of town.

'I should go to the Hokage's office,' Rayne thought. 'I wonder what she'll say when she sees me here.'

Rayne walked the all too familiar path to the Hokage's office. Standing outside of Tsunade's office, she raised her hand and knocked. After a few seconds and some ruffling on the other side, the door opened to reveal a pink haired kunochi.

"Oh, it's Rayne-san right?" Sakura asked only receiving a small nod it return. "I'm Sakura, we met earlier."

"I know," Rayne answered monotonously. "Is Tsunade here?"

"No, but she should be back in a couple of minutes. If you want you can wait here for her."

Sakura didn't an answer, but Rayne walking in and sitting down was all she needed. Although she wished that Rayne would've sat in a visitor's chair and not the Hokage's.

"Ano...Rayne-san...that's the Hokage's chair."

"Aa." Then there was silence, except for the ticking of the clock on the wall. Well, on the outside anyways. Inside Sakura's mind, Inner Sakura was on a rampage and pretending to strangle an imaginary Rayne.

A few minutes passed and Rayne just kept the chair turned towards the window behind the desk at the back of the office. Soon the door opened and Tsunade walked in. Sakura looked from where Rayne was sitting to the Godaime.

"Tsunade- shishou, there's more paperwork for you to fill out. It's sitting on your desk."

Rayne heard a disgruntled groan and laughed quietly. "Tsunade-baa, how much money have you lost and how much have you had to drink today?"

Tsunade glared at the turned chair. "Only two people greet me like that and you're not Naruto. Rayne, is that really you?"

The chair turned to reveal a grinning Rayne. "Last time I checked that was my name. She stood up and walked over to Tsunade, giving her a hug.

"But what are you doing here?" Tsunade questioned.

"I'm back for good," was the simple reply.

Tsunade grinned and said, "Come back tomorrow and we'll talk about you position and other things."

"Alright, see ya later 'sensei'." Rayne smirked and walked out the door, closing it behind her.

"What did she mean by 'sensei'," Sakura asked.

"Hm," Tsunade said, "Oh, she's been trained by all three of the Sannin."

"KYAAAAAAAA!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The next day Rayne was walking back to Tsunade's office when she heard Ino and Sakura talking around the corner. Stopping, she listened quietly.

"...trained by all _three _of the Sannin!" Ino's voice floated around the corner.

"Yeah, and she's really weird too. One minute she acts like Naruto and the next she acts like Sasuke."

"Wow. That is weird."

"Yeah, but the only thing I'm worried about is that she was trained by Orochimaru. What if she's working for him now?"

At that point, Rayne had heard enough and continued on her way to Tsunade's office. Back on the street, Ino and Sakura were still talking.

"One things for sure," Ino stated. "Rayne-san is not as she seems."


	4. Of Missions and Opinions

Rayne's journey to the Hokage's office was short after she walked off from Ino and Sakura's conversation. She got to the tower within two minutes and walked in heading towards the stairs. The ninja that were present in the building were giving her strange looks, either because of the fact that she still wore her dark blue sunglasses inside or the wave of killer intent that ever so slowly radiated off of her. In her mind, even though she wouldn't show it, Rayne was raving mad.

'How could they think that I would ever be loyal to that bastard!? After all the damn things he did to me. Isn't Tsunade trusting me enough to show those poor excuses for kunochi that I would never betray this village!?!'

Rayne was so lost in her own thoughts that went she got to the doors that led into Tsunade's office, that she completely disregarded the two jounin standing guard outside and walked _through_ the doors and straight into the office. She walked right up to Tsunade's desk and slammed her hands down, scattering papers everywhere.

"Have you _never_ taught anyone in this village to mind their own business!?!" Rayne's voice rose at the end of her sentence. Tsunade just started at her like nothing out of the ordinary happened.

"So, now that the whole village has probably heard you're outburst, you want to tell me what set you off this morning?" The corners of Tsunade's mouth were upturned in an amused smirk and Rayne stood in front of her a light blush on her face that no one would notice unless they looked very closely. Rayne flopped down in the chair in front of the desk and sighed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Stupid people who think stupid things," she muttered, barely above a whisper.

"Shizune," Tsunade said looking at the older of her two apprentices. "Close the door."

Shizune looked at the doors and sighed. She would have to get those repaired soon. One was hanging of its hinges and the other had a chunk missing out of it. She closed the doors to the best of her ability and glared at the two standing guard, her silent warning that they should mind their own business.

Once the doors were 'closed', Tsunade continued. "I'm guessing Sakura said something about you still be connected to Orochimaru?"

Rayne glared at Tsunade, "You just had to go and tell her I was trained by that damn bastard. Now she'll probably spread it around and I'll end up being as hated as Naruto."

"Well...wait a second. How do you know Naruto is hated by the villagers?"

Rayne gave Tsunade a look that said 'you've got to be kidding', and said, "It was obvious when I met him that he was the one the Kyuubi was sealed in. So obviously the villagers hate him."

"Well, I'll give you that. Who was Sakura talking to anyways?"

"That Ino girl, why?"

"Because Sakura only shares things with Ino when it's something she doesn't want anyone else to hear."

Rayne's expression softened a bit. "Oh..."

"How about we move on to the real reason why you're here. Through my experience with you," Tsunade said, voice more like that of someone who was responsible for a whole village, "I believe that you would be at ANBU status. I can have you immediately out into their ranks if that is your wish."

"As much as I would love that, I'd rather just be a jounin for now. Until I get used to this village again, that is."

"Alright." Tsunade quickly pulled a piece of paper in front of her and wrote down a few things. She then pushed it over to Rayne for her to sign. Although she trusted Tsunade, she'd had too many experiences with contracts not to look one over before signing it. She quickly read the paper and then signed it. She handed it back to Tsunade with a small smile.

"Well," Tsunade started. "Now that that is taken care of, I'm going to send you out on your first mission." Rayne gave a small smile and made a noise that somewhat resembled a laugh, shaking her head.

"How did I know that was coming?" At that moment there was a knock at the door. Tsunade signaled for Shizune to open the doors and she did just that. Three people walked in and stood beside the chair Rayne was sitting in. None of them seemed to notice that she was sitting there and she took the advantage to take a look at them. She immediately recognized all of them and rolled her eyes. Of course Tsunade would team her up with these people for her first mission in Konoha in many years.

"Finally! We have a mission!" Naruto yelled even thought Tsunade was sitting not even a meter away from him. Sakura hit him on the head while Sasuke just 'hn'ed.

Tsunade waited for them to calm down before she started to explain. "Your mission is very simple. There is a group of bandits not far from the village that are hindering the passers-by. The four of you are to intercept them and if it comes to it, dispose of them. Is that clear?"

"All but one thing, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura stated.

"What's that Sakura?"

"You said the four of us, but I only see three of us here." Rayne made a small coughing noise that brought Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke's attention to her.

"I'm the fourth person." Rayne stood from her chair and stretched. She stood between Sasuke and Naruto, making her seem smaller than she really was, although she was the shortest of the four of them. Actually, she was the shortest out of all the people that had been at the training grounds the day before.

"Who's the leader?" Sasuke asked, already assuming that it would be him or Sakura, knowing that it wouldn't be Naruto and doubting it would be this other girl because this was only her second day within the village.

"Rayne will be the leader of this mission."

Rayne sighed and shook her head. "You don't even give me time to get to know people before you put me in charge of them."

"That's because one, it's you and two, you know who all of them are and their backgrounds so I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Alright, when do you want this done by?"

"As soon as possible."

"Okay," Rayne turned to the other three in the room. "Can you all meet me at the gates in an hour?"

"Hai," they all answered and a few seconds later disappeared. Rayne turned back to Tsunade and said, "We won't be too long," before disappearing, leaving only a blue and white feather floating where she was standing.

Tsunade gave a little laugh. "Only Rayne." She turned and looked out the window, towards the gates of Konoha. "Now they'll be able to see what Rayne is really all about. Let's hope she earns their trust. Maybe then, eventually, they'll gain her trust. God knows how much she needs people that she can trust."


	5. Trust

Rayne appeared outside her door and pulled out a necklace from under her shirt, fitting the key on the end into the lock. She opened the door and walked inside closing it gently behind her. She walked to the back of the house by-passing the kitchen and the hallway that led to her room and the bathroom and straight into the living room. She had a feeling that Tsunade would be sending her straight out on a mission so she had packed the night before. Everything was ready and sitting on the couch underneath the window. She could hardly believe that when she walked into the house the night before that it looked the exact same as it had when she left it nine years ago except for the thick layer of dust that seemed to cover everything in the house.

She picked up her stuff and turned back around to the door. She walked out and locked the door behind her, tucking the necklace back under her shirt. Immediately she made her way to the main gate to wait for the rest of her team. Once there she jumped up into a tree and lay down on one of the branches to wait. It was weird for her to think that she had a team again, she hadn't had one in nine years. She leaned back against the tree trunk and closed her eyes, knowing she still had forty-five minutes until she asked the others to meet her.

Barley five minutes later, Rayne opened her eyes and looked down at the base of the tree. Back in Tsundae's office she had memorized the chakra signatures of the other three. She jumped down and landed beside Sasuke who was sitting against the base of the tree.

"You're here early, Rayne-san," Sasuke stated.

"Rayne. Just Rayne, please"

Sasuke nodded his head and closed his eyes. Rayne sat down beside him and leaned against the trunk as well. A few minutes passed before anyone spoke up.

"Rayne, if you don't mind me asking; why did you come to Konoha?" The thought had been bugging Sasuke constantly since he had met Rayne. Normally he would just keep his thoughts to himself, but there was something about this girl that made him open up a bit.

"I just figured it was time to come home."

"Home? You're from Konoha?"

"Originally, yes. I haven't been here in nine years though."

"Hn."

"Why do you ask?" Rayne was surprised that Sasuke was talking to her at all. From what she heard from Kakashi, Sasuke was the type to keep things to himself. So why was he asking her these questions?

"I figured I should get to know the leader of this mission before we actually head out."

"Well if that's the case…"

For the next thirty minutes, Sasuke and Rayne were talking about themselves, getting to know each other. Then there was a moment where Sasuke faded off, looking sidelong at Rayne, hoping she wouldn't ask questions.

"If what you were saying is about the Orochimaru thing," Rayne said, "I already know."

"Who told you?"

"Kakashi and the bastard himself."

"Orochimaru?"

"Yes. While we're on that topic, I want to say that I am in no way linked to him anymore."

"But you were linked to him at one point?"

"I was trained by all three Sannin."

"Oh."

"Look, just pay no attention to that. What's in the past can stay in the past."

"Hn. Next question: why do you wear those sunglasses all the time?"

Rayne smiled and brushed a piece of hair out of her face. "That's for me to know and for you to maybe figure out later."

At that moment, Sakura and Naruto came walking up the road to the gates. The smile slipped of Rayne's face as well as the ghost of a smile on Sasuke's face. They stopped talking or paying attention to each other all together as the two approached.

"Hey Sasuke-kun, Rayne-san," Sakura said smiling.

"Hey Rayne-san, teme," Naruto said right after her.

"Hn," both Sasuke and Rayne said in unison. They looked at each other and smirked, while Sakura and Naruto looked on in confusion.

Rayne stood up and picked up her bag before turning back to the others. "Alright, first things first, my name is Rayne, no honorifics, just Rayne. Second, our mission is to stop a group of bandits who are attacking travelers about five miles away. They are all B-ranking missing-nin, so we should be careful of traps. Get it, got it, good! Let's go." She turned and walked towards the gates, feeling the other three follow behind her.

Twenty minutes later they were deep into the forest and getting closer to there destination. It almost seemed to quiet and Rayne kept an eye out for anything that seemed even the slightest bit out of place.

"Do you even know where we are going?!" Naruto called out from the back of the group. Rayne's eye twitched in annoyance and she would have turned around and hit him upside the head if they had not been on a mission.

"Of course I know where I am going," Rayne said in a much quieter voice but making sure the others could still hear her. "I grew up in Konoha so naturally I would know the area around it."

"Oh I see. Then why did you…." Naruto was cut off by a clang of metal ringing in the air. He looked beside him and saw two kunai and a shurikan imbedded in a tree beside his head. He looked back to Rayne and saw her staring at a certain spot in the canopy with her hand positioned over her kunai holster.

Sakura and Sasuke were stopped on a tree branch beside Naruto having witnessed Rayne throw the kunai at Naruto. A first they though it was because of all the questions he was asking and then the saw and heard the kunai connect with other metal and saw the kunai and shurikan imbed themselves in the tree beside Naruto's head.

'How did she know they were going to come from over there?' Sakura thought.

'How did she react so fast without seeing them first?' thought Sasuke.

Rayne glared at Naruto and motioned for Sakura and Sasuke to move in closer. "This is why you are supposed to be quiet on these types of missions. That way the enemy doesn't have a chance to strike first." Rayne seemed to reach into her pack for a minute before taking her hand out although seemingly with nothing in it. "Get ready, they're coming."

Five ninja came out of the spot in the forest canopy that Rayne was staring at. She glanced at the others to see that they were positioned and waiting for her signal. She nodded her head ever so slightly and saw the three of them take of to intercept a ninja each. Rayne stayed where she was as the other two approached her. They stopped on a branch directly across from Rayne and stared at her. Rayne blinked slowly and gave them a look that plainly said 'what the hell are you doing?'

The ninja that was closest to her spoke. "What do they think they're doing, sending a child out here?"

Rayne's eye twitched; a habit that only happened when she was annoyed. "Excuse me," she managed to get out through clenched teeth.

Both ninja seemed to ignore her as the other spoke up. "I know, why would they let a child fight the two of us at once?"

Rayne's eye twitched again and she was glaring at the two on the branch opposite her. "If you're talking about me, I'd take back everything you just said. I'm 18 and able to kick your asses in my sleep." The two ninja laughed and Rayne snapped; she took off through the trees, making a circle around the clearing the others were fighting in. She looked behind her to see the two ninja following her and smirked. She stopped and landed sideways on a tree, only to bounce back at the ninja, kunai in her hand. Metal met metal as one of the ninja raised his own kunai to block hers. She twisted away in mid air and brought her foot down on top of the guy's head. He collapsed, his head bouncing off the tree branch below him and fell to the forest floor.

"One dead, one to go." Rayne turned to the other ninja who had a sheer look of anger on his face. He charged at Rayne and she blocked or dodged all the punches, kicks and weapons as well as landing a few blows of her own. Just as he tried to punch her mid section, she back flipped over his arm and landed a few feet away, her hands already moving into the pattern of a well memorized jutsu. A clone appeared beside Rayne and the other ninja sneered.

"Too much for you to handle by yourself?"

"No, but it's a lot more fun this way." Rayne nodded to the clone and it charged at the ninja, engaging him in close hand-to-hand combat. When the clone was in close enough Rayne gave the signal and…

"_Bushin Daibakuha no Jutsu" _The clone exploded, taking the enemy with it. Rayne smirked and jumped down to a lower branch to watch how the others were holding up. As she scanned the area, she noticed that Sakura and the ninja she was fighting were very close to where she was now. As she watched, Sakura was thrown backwards into the trunk of the tree that Rayne was currently sitting in. Rayne saw the ninja throw something and noticed that Sakura wouldn't get out of the way in time. She flipped over, keeping her legs wrapped around the branch and grabbed onto Sakura, hauling her up, but not before getting a kunai and a couple senbon imbedded in her back. She pulled herself and Sakura up onto the tree branch, and winced as she moved her shoulder the wrong way, causing the weapons to dig further into her back.

"Rayne-san! Here let me heal that for you." Sakura sat across from Rayne on the same tree branch, her eyes slightly widened as she gazed at Rayne's back.

"Not now, there are still battles going on. Stay here and I'll finish off the ninja you were fighting." Before Sakura could protest, Rayne had jumped down from the tree and was now standing directly in front of the ninja Sakura had just been fighting. Rayne's hands once again blurred as she made a few hand signs.

"_Kaze no Yaiba." _At first it seemed like nothing had happened and the ninja just laughed. Rayne lunged at the ninja and ducked under his punch, and making a slashing motion at his side. Suddenly blood poured out of the gaping wound in the ninja's side and he fell dead next to Rayne. She smirked and released her grip on what Sakura supposed was a sword of some kind. Rayne surveyed the rest of the clearing and noticed that Naruto and Sasuke were both finished with their fights and staring at her, probably having seen her whole little show. Rayne sighed and sat down, trying to turn her head to see how bad her injury was. Sakura dropped down beside her and started to work on healing her as the other two made their way over to the two girls.

"Rayne-san, you didn't have to do that," Sakura said.

"I know, but I did it anyway." Rayne short reply was said with a hint of annoyance.

"You do realize that if that hit a litter higher and to the left that would have been fatal." Sasuke stood leaning against a tree opposite of Sakura and Rayne, with Naruto sitting on the ground a little ways away.

"Still, it was amazing how she killed him even though she was injured!"

Rayne picked up a rock and threw it at Naruto's head. "Would you shut up!? There are still a few more of them."

"Back to the topic at hand," Sakura stated. "Why did you pull me out of the way? You could have been killed."

Rayne sighed and pushed up her glasses and rubbed her eyes. Once her glasses were back in place, she looked straight ahead, seemingly into nothing. "I don't care if I die. As long as I die so others can continue to live, I'm fine with death."

There was a resonating silence that followed, in which the others stared at Rayne, questions in their eyes. Suddenly Rayne stood up and Sakura immediately grabbed her wrist. Rayne shook her free and made a few hand seals. Fire burst in fine lines from her fingers and up into the trees. Not even a second later, three charred bodies fell to the forest floor.

"I told you there were still more," Rayne said as she flopped back down. She quietly unwound the wires from her fingers and pulled, tearing them away from the tree branches.

Naruto looked from the cut, falling tree branches, to Rayne, back to the tree and finally back to Rayne. "When did you get the wires get in place?"

"During the fight, but I think I overdid it a little," Rayne said as she looked at the mutilated trees. She laid back and propped herself up on her elbows. She sighed and said something quietly under her breath, then looked around. After a minute she stopped looking around and pushed her glasses up to rub her eyes again.

"Why do you always wear those glasses?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah! I don't think I've ever seen you without them," Naruto chipped in.

Rayne sighed yet again and smiled slightly. "I'm sure that all of you have secrets that you don't want others to know because of a doubt in trust." At this point she glanced at Naruto, who's eyes had widened just the slightest. Her smile grew a bit and she continued, "I'm the same way. I know I have trust problems, which is why I wear these sunglasses."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, confused. "That made no sense."

"It made sense, you just can't wrap your tiny little brain around it." Sasuke stood leaning against the tree with his eyes closed.

"Teme!"

"Naruto, stop, "Rayne interrupted. "We should head back now, it's getting late." Rayne stood up and swayed. She barley made it three steps in front of her before she toppled over, near enough to the tree to grab it before she fell over completely. She heard a soft sigh from beside her and felt and arm go around he waist to stabilize her. She looked over and saw Sasuke helping her to stand.

"Do you think you could get on my back?" he asked.

Rayne was about to argue that she could handle herself just fine, then she remembered that Sasuke was just a stubborn as her. She decided not to argue and just said, "Yeah, I think so."

Naruto and Sakura stood off to the side, watching Sasuke help Rayne to get onto his back.

"Why is Sasuke helping her?" Sakura questioned.

"I don't know. He hardly helps when asked, let alone when he's not."

"You guys ready?" Rayne asked from Sasuke's back looking down on them .She had already managed to get onto Sasuke's back and they were up in the tree waiting for Naruto and Sakura to come along. "Coming," Sakura and Naruto answered in unison. Together they all started to make their way back to Konoha.

Little did Naruto, Sasuke and I know that this was just the beginning. This was just the start of a greater story that was to be played out in the future. The key thing at that moment though, was that Rayne finally had somebody to trust. Actually, three somebodies.

A/N: YAY!!! My longest chapter even written for anything I think ;p Hope you enjoyed!

The two jutsu used in this chapter are:

Bushin Daibakuha (Clone Great Explosion)- a shadow clone that explodes on command; A-rank jutsu

Kaze no Yaiba (Blade of Wind)- creates and invisible blade out of wind; A-rank jutsu


End file.
